Producing for Profit

Chapter 12Navigating the Actors’ Union

Sag–Aftra

As we’ve covered earlier, if you want or need a “name” actor in your movie, or simply professional actors, your production company must become signatory to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), which merged with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and now functions under the official title SAG–AFTRA, which I’ve referred to throughout as SAG. The guild represents almost every professional film and television name actor in the United States. Some disgruntled producers have referred to it as “the Mafia,” but, having been a guild member myself for over forty years, I prefer to think of it as a necessary monopoly.

I do, however, have strong opinions about what is beneficial for ...